Presently It Is The Past
by DiscordianSamba
Summary: After a botched escape from one of his ghostly foes, Danny finds himself trapped in the year 1948, and needing to find a way back. While there, however, he encounters a strangely familiar face- who is this girl who looks shockingly like Sam? And to make matters worse, it would seem that there's another face he knows all too well here also- and he's NOT a friend of his. (No PP)


Author's Note: Yo! Is it a canon fic? It's a canon fic, it is! Well, a canon fic sans Phantom Planet, at the very least. Time traveling! This idea came to fruition thanks to discussion with several of my Phandom friends, namely Becca, Silv, and Jesse. There aren't really a lot of time traveling fics in the Phandom, or so it seems that way to me. So, Danny gets sent back to 1948 by accident, and ends up meeting Sam's grandmother, Ida, and someone else he already knows well from his own timeline. I think this should be pretty fun, so I hope you guys stick around from the ride!

Also for fuck's sake, I'm starting on the update for _Friends Forever_ tomorrow, but if I get harassed about it _one more time_, I'm putting it on the bottom of the list, so shut up about it already.

Danny Phantom does not belong to me.

* * *

**Presently it is the Past**

Chapter One: 1948

* * *

"Wow Sam, did I catch you at a bad time or something?" Danny observed as he entered into the Manson home, arching a brow a little as he caught sight of his good friend. "You all look like somebody just died." He told her, casting an eye towards the rest of the Manson family- for once all clad in black, in spite of her parent's disdain for darker colors. He wince a little when that got him a glower from Sam's parents- Jesus, nobody had _actually _died, had they?

"Not exactly, Danny." Sam said gently, smiling at him. "Today's the anniversary of my grandfather's death. It's been ten years now, so we went to a memorial service for him. Hence, the black." She told him. "Are you here to pick me up for the movie?" She asked, glancing around. "Where's Tucker? Is he going to meet us at the theater."

"Oh, I see." Danny blinked, frowning a little. He had never met Sam's grandfather, the man had passed away before he had met her. He rubbed the back of his neck a little, feeling a bit awkward now with his earlier choice of words, and was grateful when Sam's parents finally slinked off, leaving him alone with her and her grandmother. "Oh yeah, about Tucker. Turns out that he caught a cold or something. Sucks to be him, I guess, and right in the middle of summer vacation, too."

"A cold, huh?" Sam asked, raising her brows, a skeptical look crossing her face. "Well, I guess it'll just be us then, Danny. Let me get changed and cleaned up a little, and I'll be right down, okay?"

"Oh yeah, sure." Danny grinned, taking a seat at the kitchen table, wondering what that earlier look had been about. Sam seemed like she knew something he didn't, but he had a feeling that she wouldn't tell him even if he asked about it. "Hurry back, before your parents find me loitering in their house and decided to call the police again."

"I'll try." Sam grinned, heading upstairs herself. In the background, Danny could hear her grandmother snort, shaking her head a little. "Why don't you keep my grandma entertained while I wait? I shouldn't be too long, though." The goth girl said, poking her head back down the stairs.

"Yeah, okay." Danny waved to her, before turning towards the elderly woman, trying to put on his best smile. He never was very good at dealing with old people, as much as he hated to admit that. At the very least, Sam's grandmother, Ida, seemed to be nothing like her parents, and was much more accepting of her granddaughter's alternative lifestyle and of her friendship with Danny. But there was something off putting about the woman, as if she knew things about Danny that he wasn't too sure he was comfortable with her knowing.

He had a feeling, ever since Sam had told her that she had once helped her sneak out of the house to go rescue him, back when Freakshow had first appeared in town, that she _knew _about him being half ghost, though he wasn't sure how. He wasn't sure how he should feel about that, and he had never brought it up with Sam either, although he had an inkling that Ida suspected something as well.

"So uh, how was the service?" Danny asked, drumming his fingers on the table, trying to make some conversation with her. He could at least try to be polite, right?

"Oh, it was wonderful." Ida told him, wheeling her scooter towards the fridge, opening it up. "Did you want anything, dear?"

"Oh no, I'm holding out for popcorn." Danny said with a quick grin, hoping that for once it would be a rather ghost free afternoon. All he wanted to do was to go with his friends to the latest Dead Teacher movie, and that was it. Or well, he guessed go with Sam to the latest Dead Teacher movie, since Tucker, sadly, had gotten sick at the last minute. He would have to remember to come visit him later, maybe bring some chicken soup over or something. It must be awful getting sick during summer vacation.

"Oh well then, more for me!" Ida said chipperly, grabbing a carton of eggs from the fridge and setting them aside on the counter. "So, how's everything going between you and my granddaughter?" She asked.

"Oh, fine." Danny grinned, missing the meaning of her question. "Sam and I get along really well together, and I can always depend on her. Well," he paused, seeming to reconsider that statement for a moment. "Most of the time, at any rate. But she's a great friend."

"Oh, _just _a friend?" Ida asked, glancing back towards Danny, quirking a brow.

That question Danny did get the meaning of, and he turned bright red in response. "W-we're just friends, yeah." He stammered, his blue eyes going wide. It was true that sometimes he liked to imagine what it would be like if they were a bit _more _than that, but he didn't think that Sam exactly returned his feelings. Tucker had tried to convince him that she was jealous when he was dating Paulina (who turned out to be Kitty overshadowing Paulina) but he had always thought that was because she was more angry that he had abandoned them. He had also tried to convince Danny that Sam had been jealous when he was dating Valerie, but he was sure that was just because Sam was worried because Valerie was a ghost hunter.

Danny wasn't really sure where Tucker got these ideas, really. Sam didn't like guys like him- she would probably go for some kind of hardcore goth kid or something. Admittedly, Danny didn't know how he would feel about Sam eventually dating someone, but it wasn't exactly like he owned her or anything, as jealous as he got when 'Gregor' was around. He guessed as long as the guy she dated wasn't a total creep, he would be okay with that, and sometimes convinced himself that he was just worried because he was simply looking out for her.

"Hm, I see." Ida observed, a knowing look crossing her face. That was the other thing that Ida Manson seemed to _know _about him that Danny wasn't sure he liked- his conflicted feelings for Sam. Oh sure, everyone else made guesses or jokes about it, but her grandmother _knew_, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had feelings of some kind for her. "You know, you remind me sometimes of my husband." She told him. "He was always kind of oblivious too."

"I'm not oblivious." Danny huffed, frowning a little. "Where does everyone even keep getting that idea from? I'm _perfectly _observant. It's my _dad _that's the oblivious one."

"Well you know what they say sonny, the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. I mean, Sam's practically a spitting image of me when I was her age. Oh, those were the days." Ida said, smiling to herself. "I had such a good time back in those days, running around with my friends. Just like the three of you, really." She told him. "Well, I won't bore you with an old ladies' memories. Care to help me crack some eggs, hon? My hands are a bit shaky these days, as much as I hate to admit it."

"Oh, sure." Danny blinked, getting to his feet. He wasn't really oblivious though, was he? He guessed that sometimes he didn't pick up on things as fast as he should, but he wasn't _oblivious_, right? He brushed the matter from his mind, taking out one of the bowls he knew the Mansons kept in their cabinets, and reached for the eggs. "How many do you want?"

"Oh three should do fine. I have a powerful hankering for scrambled eggs." Ida told him.

"Three it is then!" Danny told her, cracking the eggs into the bowl. He wasn't really all that good at cooking, but cracking eggs was something he could do. He used to bake together with his mother all the time as a kid, and cracking eggs had been one of his favorite things, so he had picked up some skill in that, at least. "All done. Anything else I can help you with?" He asked, just as Sam came back down into the kitchen.

"Oh no, I can't possibly hold you two up." Ida told them, shaking her head. "You two have fun at the movies, alright?"

"We will, grandma." Sam told her, grinning as she hurried over toward Danny's side, patting him on the shoulder. "Right, Danny? I've been looking forward to this since they announced the new movie. They're all pretty terrible to be sure, but they're the right kind of terrible. And since I missed seeing the last movie with you guys in theaters, it's kind of nice to have a chance to catch it this time around."

"Yeah well, the last one was the bad kind of terrible, so you didn't exactly miss all that much." Danny told her, wiping egg off his hands with a paper towel, before tossing it away. "Come on, we've got plenty of time to get there, but I want to _avoid _the ticket rush."

"See you later, grandma." Sam called out after her, waving a hand, before grabbing Danny's, all but pulling him out the door. "Come on Danny, I want to get some good seats."

"Yeah, well, you don't need to pull my arm off, Sam." Danny grumbled, hurrying behind her. "Should we go visit Tucker after the movie? I feel kind of bad for him, coming down with a cold in the middle of summer vacation. Kind of takes the fun out of everything."

"Oh, I don't think we'll have to worry about that, Danny." Sam said, rolling her eyes a little. "In fact, I'm pretty sure that by this time tomorrow, Tucker will be _just _fine."

"Oh." Danny blinked a little, frowning. "Are you sure? Because I still think that we should go visit him."

"Like we need _you _getting sick on us again." Sam pointed out. She knew full well that Tucker wasn't sick at all, but rather, was just faking it so that they could get some alone time together. It was a strange feeling, she thought, wanting to both punch someone and thank them at the same time. It was a totally unnecessary gesture, _especially _since Danny was far too dense to even realize it. But nonetheless, she appreciated it. She just hoped that there would be no ghostly interruptions today.

Danny flushed a little at that remark, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, it was pretty tough explaining to my parents why there was a sudden gaping hole in my wall. But how was I supposed to know catching a cold would cause my ghost powers to go haywire? They didn't the last time I got sick, you know, back when Desiree first showed up?"

"I think it had to do with your powers having become more deeply ingrained in you. Besides, your powers were going haywire all the time back then, so you probably wouldn't have even noticed the difference." Sam pointed out. "Anyways, back then you didn't have the Ghostly Wail either. Less potential for mass destruction."

"That much is true." Danny sheepishly admitted. "Oh hey, Sam, by the way, about your grandmother... do you think she _knows_?" He asked her, glancing over towards his friend. "Cause sometimes I get this weird feeling that she does."

"To be honest, I really couldn't tell you Danny." Sam frowned a little. "Grandma's always been kind of observant. Apparently she used to be some kind of detective or something, so she might have just picked up on things that other people have missed. But I've never said anything to her about it, and she's never asked me about you or Phantom so I honestly couldn't say. That said, I am sort of leaning towards her knowing about you being Phantom, though I don't know how. I'd just be careful around her, though it looks like she doesn't exactly plan on broadcasting this."

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." Danny nodded his head. "It's just, sometimes she looks at me like she knows a lot more about me than she lets on. It's a little weird, to be honest. Probably why I don't like talking to her all that much, no offense."

"None taken." Sam shrugged her shoulders. "Grandma has always sort of been that way. Like I said, she used to be a detective or something when she was younger. She doesn't really talk all that much about it though. Shame all of that skipped my mother, though." She rolled her eyes. "Instead we get Miss Straight out of the Fifties. Not sure how _that _happened."

"Not to mention Mr Straight Out of the Fifties." Danny pointed out, grinning a little. "They are quite the pair, your parents. Oh, good, it doesn't look like there's much of a line yet. Maybe we'll get good seats after all." He said, as they approached the movie theater. His excitement, however, quickly faded when an all too familiar mist escaped his lips, and he found himself letting out a low groan, resisting the urge to slap his face.

"I'll get the tickets and save us some seats." Sam promised him. "You can pay me back for yours later. You wanted some popcorn, right?" She asked him.

"Yeah, with extra butter, if ordering me that doesn't go against your moral code or anything." Danny told her, giving her a small grin. "I'll be back as quick as I can. Hopefully, it's nothing serious."

"Ugh." Sam couldn't help but crinkle her nose in disgust. "Please don't remind me of my earlier days of trying to force veganism on people, Danny. Don't you worry about it, I'll get you or popcorn. You go do your thing, ghost boy." She grinned at him, giving his shoulder a light shove. "Be careful though."

"Aren't I always careful?" Danny grinned, hurrying off down the sidewalk, to find a secluded place to transform. He saw Sam roll her eyes as he ducked into an alleyway, rings of light forming at his waist and transforming him into his ghost half. Taking to the sky, he searched for whatever was setting off his ghost sense, taking note of Sam heading towards the movie theater ahead of him. He grinned a little, before focusing back on the task at hand. He had learned by now what the price of distraction while on duty, so to speak, could be and that it wasn't one that he wanted to pay.

Flying down the street, Phantom frowned, eyes narrowing. He couldn't see anything that looked like it was a ghost- had he missed them? That was strange, _normally _they usually came right out and attacked him. As much as the idea of this possibly being a false alarm appealed to him, he had a hunch that this was something else, something more nefarious than just that.

As he thought that, another stream of mist escaped from his lips, and he spun around- before relaxing. If he breathed as a ghost, he would have let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's just you, huh?" He asked, a hint of a smirk appearing on his face as he caught sight of the rather unimposing figure of the Box Ghost.

"I am the Box Ghost!" The portly ghost in question cried, providing Phantom with his usual greeting, waggling his fingers in the air and all. "Beware!"

"Yeah, yeah, why don't we just skip this and have you get in the thermos. I've got a movie to go catch." Phantom told him, reaching for the Fenton Thermos he had looped on his belt. Another chill ran down his spine then, and his ghost sense went off again- and before he had time to really dwell on the idea that the Box Ghost wasn't alone, he found his hands being bound behind him, glowing green energy forming that he could barely see entangling his wrists. The Box Ghost quickly made himself scarce, and a feeling of dread seeped through the half ghost, as he spun around to see where the blast had come from.

"One of Walker's guards." Phantom grimaced, spotting the glowing green ghost, it's upper half clad in what appeared to be some kind of riot gear. "I should have guessed. Where's the rest of your force, getting donuts?" He couldn't help but quip. Almost as soon as he said that, the single prison guard ghost simply quirked a brow, and as if on cue, others of his kind began to appear, emerging from the walls of nearby buildings, where they had been lurking, unseen.

And that could only mean one thing.

"It's been awhile since the last time we've seen each other, punk."

"_Walker_." Phantom grimaced, almost hissing the name, turning towards the source of the voice as the ghost warden himself faded into view. He tugged at the bonds behind him, and found that they held fast. "What do you want from me this time?"

"You see ghost kid, you could just keep playing this little game of cat and mouse that we have going on, but as it turns out, I would much rather see to it that you finally carry out the terms of your sentence. So we can do this the hard way or the _harder _way, punk." The ghost warden told him, his eyes narrowing as the locked eyes with Phantom. "And if it's all the same to you, I would much rather prefer we do this the harder way."

"Yeah well, I've never really agreed with your opinions, now have I?" Phantom asked. "And like I said, I have a previous engagement. Any chance we can get a rain check on your little vendetta, Walker?"

"Yeah, you've got a previous engagement with the inside of one of my prison cells. Ten thousand years, if you recall." The ghost warden smirked, lifting a hand to signal his guards, who began closing in on Phantom, some of them pounding their night sticks on empty palms, all too eager to follow the ghost warden's commands.

"My sentence seems to have gone up since the last time we met." Phantom couldn't help but quip, quirking a brow. He warily glanced around him, wondering exactly how he was going to get his butt out of this mess. He grunted, trying his restraints again, but it wasn't of much use. He did have one idea, at least, but it wasn't an idea he very much liked. It would leave him a bit defenseless against all of these ghosts, but at this point, it was also the only way he could see himself escaping.

"Your crimes have accumulated since the last time we met." Walker noted. He pointed towards Phantom then, and his ghost guards all shared the malicious grin, closing in once more on Phantom.

"Sorry, not interested in spending the rest of my life holed up in a prison cell. So if you don't mind, I'm going to have to ask you all to move." Phantom told them, a hint of a smirk appearing on his face. He had to admit, he was probably going to enjoy the next part, even if it was going to leave him rather drained afterwards. If he could just get these cuffs off as well, he would be better off, and he thought he had an idea for dealing with that as well- he just hoped that he had enough energy left over afterwards to take care of it.

Taking in a deep breath, Phantom summoned up most of his power, before unleashing it in the form of a ghostly wail. The ghost guards tried to scramble out of the way, but it did the trick, blasting them- and much to Phantom's additional delight, Walker- out of the way, creating a pathway for Phantom to escape. He could see stars dancing in front of his eyes, however, but he shook them off, flying away at full speeds. He knew that the remaining ghost guard squadron was on his heels, and he needed to get somewhere safe as soon as possible. If he headed back to Fenton Works, then he could throw up the ghost shield, until he could think of some way to deal with them.

He felt a wave of exhaustion threaten to overcome him as he flew onwards, quickly realizing that the ghost guards had started to shoot at him. Turning so that he could fly facing them, he avoided the spectral cuffs that they were able to shoot out from their poles, gritting his teeth in concentration. His hands meanwhile, gripped around the edges of his spectral cuffs, his eyes beginning to glow blue. "I hope this actually _works_." He mumbled to himself.

The temperature around Phantom dropped drastically as he used his ice powers, covering the spectral cuffs with a coating of ice. Grunting and clenching his teeth, Phantom exerted his full strength, wrenching the frozen cuffs apart. He could feel one of his shoulders dislocate itself out of the effort, which caused him to bite down on his lip to prevent himself from crying out in pain. At the very least his hands were now free, and he could fire his ectoblasts again.

His earlier exertion with his ghostly wail had cost him though, and Phantom knew that much. He had to escape from Walker and his goons fast, otherwise he might actually pass out. His vision danced a little before him, but he shook it off, firing off an ectoblast at one of the closest guards, forcing it away. In the back of his mind, he did find it curious that Walker would be attacking him so openly- usually he had a bit more of a plan going on, and that only managed to make him all the _more _nervous.

What was he up to, then?

Speaking of the ghost warden, Phantom swore underneath his breath as the skeletal faced specter nearly tore through his own guards himself to chase after Phantom, having shaken off the effects of his ghostly wail with almost distressing ease. There seemed to be cold fury blazing in those green eyes of his, and Phantom couldn't help but wonder what he had done to ignite it this time. Walker seemed... angrier with him than he usually did, as if there was something else going on here other than having caused a prison riot at the ghost warden's jail nearly a year ago.

"Not today, punk!" Walker called after him, closing in on Phantom fast.

Phantom swore underneath his breath, trying to increase his speed as much as possible. He phased through the wall of a nearby office building, trying to take a shortcut to get to Fenton Works. But Walker was closing in on him still even as he speed up, and Phantom's head began to swim as he tried to keep his transformation up, half swearing that he was going to lose it and plummet from the sky. Meanwhile, the ghost warden had overshot his guards, and was increasing the distance between them.

Phantom raised a hand, firing off another ectoblast at the ghost warden, which he avoided. In turn, the half ghost found his vision blurring and he swore underneath his breath, pinching his nose to try and focus himself. All too quickly, however, Walker closed the gap between them, and dimly Phantom realized that he had lost speed without even realizing it. The ghost warden reached out, clamping a hand over Phantom's wrist, stopping the ghost boy in his tracks.

"Get away from me!" Phantom hissed, green eyes flashing.

"Not this time." Walker said, his voice cold. "I'm putting a stop to this before it can even happen."

"I don't even know what that means!" Phantom shouted, gritting his teeth and firing an ectoblast point blank at Walker, forcing some distance between them. Walker pulled at his dislocated arm as he did so, causing a fresh wave of pain to course through Phantom.

That was when he saw it, a faint shimmer of a swirling green color, and dimly, somewhere in the back of his mind, he recalled that it was a natural portal. Almost as if he was acting on instinct, Phantom let out a burst of speed, heading towards it, aware that Walker was right on his heels. His vision began to swim again, and he could all but feel the rings around his waist begin to flicker off and on, threatening to turn him back, and with a final burst of speed, Phantom slipped through the portal.

It was only as he saw it start to close just as his foot passed through that he realized that although this would get him away from Walker, he also had no idea as to where he was going to end up. But he didn't have long to think about that either, as his vision danced before him, and he lost flight altogether, finding himself falling from the sky, his body crash landing against what seemed to be a dumpster. His transformation rings flickered to life around his waist as he slid down from it, and the sight of himself transforming back was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.

* * *

Blue eyes snapped open, the feeling of a fresh twinge of pain surging through him causing him to bolt back into awareness. As if on instinct, Danny jerked away, breaking free of the hand that had a hold on him, crouching into a fighting position before he realized that the person in front of him was in fact, not a ghost, but was very much a living, breathing person.

"Whoa there, kiddo. _Easy_." The man lifted up his hands- or hand, rather, he only had the one arm, his left- as if to try and assure him that he was of no threat. His accent was heavy, and Danny placed it as being Irish. He had dark red hair, shortly cropped, not a hint of it past his ears, and had dark brown eyes, which were currently filled with concern. He was dressed in a style that Danny wasn't familiar with, that didn't look as if it was something he would see around Amity Park. He appeared to be somewhere in his late forties, though with a weather worn face like that, it was possible he could have been a bit younger still.

His blue eyes widened as he recalled earlier events, noting from the skyline that it appeared to be nearing evening now. How long had he been out? Or rather... where exactly _was _he? The buildings around him didn't look like an Amity Park that he was familiar with- where exactly had that natural portal taken him?

"Come on kid, we need to get you to a hospital. Your shoulder's in a pretty bad fix there, and you got a pretty nasty head wound. I don't like that cold temperature of yours either." The man spoke, standing up. He had been crouching my the unconscious boy, trying to check his pulse, when he had jerked to his feet, scampering away. He recognized that kind of reflex, and watched as the strangely dressed boy seemed to ease up once he realized that he meant him no harm- but tensed up again the moment that he mentioned the hospital. All signs pointed to the fact that there was something abnormal about this kid, even disregarding the strange manner in which he was dressed.

"I can't do that, sorry." Danny stammered, forcing himself to stand up, ignoring the dull throbbing that ran through his entire body. A hand went up to his head, and he grimaced, feeling old blood caked there. He had hit it pretty hard, after all, if he weren't half ghost, he probably would have been _much _worse off.

"Are you okay, kid?" The man asked, frowning deeply, concern etching itself into his features. "Are you a runaway of some kind?" His voice dropped then, and he glanced about them, as if trying to make sure no one overheard him. "You're not in trouble with the mob are you? Not a kid your age."

"T-the mob?" Danny stammered, his eyebrows knitting together. There wasn't a mob in Amity Park! Where the hell was he? Or rather- exactly _when _was he? Because the longer he looked about his surroundings, the quicker he realized that it didn't seem like he was in the year 2013 anymore. "No, I'm not in any trouble with the mob." He said quickly, shaking his head, glancing around and trying to look for a way out of this conversation. He needed to get a grip on where and _when _he was and more importantly, he needed to figure out how to get _home_.

"Well, it's clear to me that you need some kind of medical attention, kid." The man frowned deeply. "I can help you get to a hospital, they'll get you right as rain there."

"Look, all I appreciate that," Danny began, frowning a little. "But all I really need is today's date, if you could be so kind."

The man blinked, frowning a little, but seemed to incline his head a little. "Well, it's the 15th of July." He told him. "How long have you been out son?"

"Uh, one more thing?" Danny grimaced a little, knowing that there was no way this question wouldn't come out as weird. "What _year _is it?"

Now the man surely did look confused, but nonetheless, he answered Danny. "It's 1948, son."

_Oh boy._


End file.
